Constructing a National Cinema in Britain: Some Conclusions

Abstract

Abstract My starting-point in this book was the dominant presence of Hollywood in British cinema since at least the First World War. The construction of a national cinema in Britain inevitably involves coming to terms with this presence. British cinema has done that in various ways: by competing with Hollywood on its own terms and in its own markets; by colluding with Hollywood in the distribution and exhibition of American films in the British market; by trying to protect British producers from the immense power and penetration of the American film industry; and by various forms of product differentiation. It is this question of product differentiation which is of most interest in the end and which has been my central concern in the preceding chapters. Even so, the case-study method has enabled me to capture something of the cultural and economic diversity of British cinema across several decades. Thus, although I have had much to say about the formation of intellectual film culture in Britain and its role in promoting particular types of cinema, there has also been the space to explore some aspects of popular cinema. In other words, I have tried to show how both the critically valued and the critically despised—as well as the critics themselves—have played their part in constructing a national cinema in Britain.